Peter Britton reveals why he bought the Longreach Pastoral College

The Winton couple were the successful purchasers of the former Longreach Pastoral College and grazing land south of the Landsborough Highway a year ago, on June 5, 2023, surprising many who had thought the bid put in by a consortium of 10 large pastoral companies, focusing on agricultural training, had the front running.

The Brittons paid $7.6 million for the asset, which Mr Britton admitted he'd originally overlooked when he was inspecting the whole property prior to putting in a tender.

He credited his daughter Amanda with the push to consider the purchase, saying he was more interested in the northern parcel of land at first.

"Then I said, take me to the college, that's where the money is," he said. "That's the truth. When I saw it I thought there could have been potential here for something."

After putting in their tender, they heard nothing from the state government for months and were surprised to eventually be told they'd been successful.

To top it off, Mr Britton said he'd been told by Agriculture Minister Mark Furner that theirs was the only complying tender for the campus/land parcel.

"You would think if you wanted something badly you'd make sure you complied," he said.

"Everyone wants a you beaut learning place but that's not what I do.

"I buy a place, do it up and keep it running, and sell it. I say, you do it up and they'll come, and here we are."

Mr Britton said he'd received a couple of offers for the property since they'd taken ownership but they hadn't been offered enough money.

"This is a very good asset to have," he said.

"If they want to do training here, well, it's here.

"I haven't hunted them away, I haven't said no, but someone's got to pay for the maintenance of the buildings.

"If they come along and there's no money for the maintenance of the buildings in their programs, don't come here, because I'm not letting it fall down like the last mob did."

He was referring to the Queensland government, which closed its flagship agricultural training colleges at Longreach and Emerald at the end of 2019, following a review by Professor Peter Coaldrake that found the existing model for residential training was outdated.

In the face of industry outrage, the assets were put on the market at the end of 2022.

Since the sale to Peter and Carol Britton, Dan and Brooke Walker have rebranded their Camden Park station tourism experience to Longreach Station and moved their headquarters to the former college campus, offering short term accommodation for school camps and community events, to bridge the gap between city and country.

That followed months of work to get the facilities back up to standard, Mr Britton said.

He recruited Ilfracombe-based Jason Dolgner as his overseer and they went to work.

"You wouldn't believe, if you looked back 12 months, how much things have changed," Mr Dolgner said.

"It was a bit of a mess - (if) you don't live somewhere, things fall down.

"There were 10 of us on whipper snippers for the first week, just knocking down grass.

"You couldn't see the paths, you couldn't see gutters, dirt was piled up six inches in corners."

They've trimmed back trees and cut back on lawn areas to incorporate waterwise practices, and Mr Dolgner said they were getting comments every day on how good the facility was now looking.

He was also responsible for making the 13,355ha of land that came with the purchase reusable, restanding all the fences and putting new waters in, so that just over 1000 head of cattle are now running on the country.

Mr Britton said the land was another aspect that appealed when they were inspecting it, giving them a spelling depot at Rosebank Station for their stock on country west of Winton.

As well as supplying beef to Longreach's Jemco Meats online butchery and delivery business, and to the Butcher 2 Go self-serve meat retail shop in Charters Towers, they are also running Dorper sheep at Longreach.

"Sheep aren't a new thing - we had 23,000 sheep when I signed up with Dad - but these things are," Mr Britton said. "You have sheep before you get cattle, you don't have cattle and then go back to sheep."

He successfully drilled a bore on the property, going down 910 metres for a resulting 8 litre a second flow at 50psi, which they'll pipe back towards Rosebank.

Mr Britton said all the ex-college staff houses on site had been renovated - painted, air-conditioned and landscaped - and were fully occupied.

They also put away 6600 bales of grass hay when they first arrived, some of which they've since sold.

"You can't live on fresh air, something's got to pay the bills," Mr Britton explained.

Looking back at his decision to tender for the former education venue, Mr Britton laughed that his children had grown up and wanted to be the bosses, so he had to find something easier to do.

"I was probably looking more at a roadhouse but that's gone by the wayside - there's too many unmanned sites about," he said.

"We had a bit of education with the roadhouse and the caravan park in Winton - we built it and then we refurbished both of them, so we have a bit of experience about doing things up.

"I look at the infrastructure, big steel frames and they've just got buildings inside them - it's all cosmetic really."

It's a tradition that goes back to his ancestor Granny Hasted, who took on the Middleton Hotel in 1916, stayed two weeks and then moved on to the Min Min Hotel further down the Winton-Boulia Road. When it burnt down in 1924, she purchased the nearby Hamilton Hotel.

The family's first property purchase was Sandilla at Boulia, then Goodwood, where Mr Britton's brother Rick and wife Ann Britton now live.

Buying and selling is in Mr Britton's blood. From Fermoy at Winton in 1993, he reels off names - The Grove, Mountain View, Mt Landsborough, St Lucia at Boulia, Oakleigh at Torrens Creek, Illawarra at Longreach, Fairview at Kynuna, and a feedlot at Tara among them.

He donated the land at Mountain View that the Australian Age of Dinosaur Museum is located on, and now owns Brighton Downs, Braeside, Mundooran, Franklin and Lucknow at Winton.

He said he'd spoken to AAM, the company that put the consortium together with a plan to take on the former college for agricultural training purposes, since taking over the property.

"It's getting harder and harder (to do something with them) because the more the Walkers and everyone does here, there's no real need to pass it on now," he said. "It was a bit daunting at the start but we've nearly got it rolled and we've only been here 12 months."